


I Will Survive

by CoopPenny



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Everyone blames Tony, Experimentation, Extremis, Groot is not Stupid, Hurt Tony Stark, Hydra (Marvel), Kidnapped Tony Stark, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pain, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Rhodey, Rocket Raccoon & Tony Stark Friendship, Science Bros, Tony Stark Still Has Arc Reactor, Torture, until he's not there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2018-08-18 17:47:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8170424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoopPenny/pseuds/CoopPenny
Summary: Peter Quill could happily say that he had it good in life. He's got a team, he's got a ship, he's considered to be a hero throughout the Galaxy and he could get any babe he wanted.It wasn't until a certain someone caught his eye that he thought that maybe he didn't have everything he could ever wont. But he was sure as hell going to try!





	1. Mystery Man

**Author's Note:**

> I just really like this ship but it's hard for them to get together so in my struggle I've come up with this!  
> Some swearing here and there but nothing major.  
> Enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter Quill could happily say that he was living the good life. He had a team, he had his own ship, he had the adventure and he had all the babes he could ever ask for!
> 
> It wan't until a certain someone caught his attention that he discovers that he didn't, in fact, have everything he could ever want. But he was sure as hell going to try!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just really needed to get this down on paper, I've been thinking about it for a while so this is the result of my obsession... so, yeah....  
> Also, there is hardly any of Tony Stark/ Peter Quill shipping! Whats up with that?!  
> Anyway... enjoy!!

They didn't seem to have much to do nowadays but after a mission, successful or otherwise, they'd go down to the nearest bar they can find and settle for a long night of drinking. For Peter this was the best thing that could ever sooth his nerves. He could have anything in a bar! A drink, a dance, a bet or drinking game and it was Peter's favourite place to pick up a suitable bed partner. Yep! Bars were completely his element (though that may be to do with the fact that Yondu and his crew liked a good drink too).

Peter was basically ignoring all his teammates as they spoke of past battle, tactics and weapons. He liked fighting as much as the next guy but right now he was concentrating on an important task. Yes, picking up bed partners is an important task! First he had to know if they were alone or if they had friends or if they had any girlfriends or boyfriends around, which could get extremely messy extremely fast if he wasn't carful. Second, he had to find out if they were cute or hot enough to his liking. Third, make sure that they are at least a little tipsy for him to approach them and actually get them to agree. Fourth, make sure that they are not there to kill him. There! Simple!

His eyes were weaving between the different people spotting out two assassins (or what would look like assassins guessing by the amount of hidden weapons on their person), skimming over couples and large groups of friends. He was nearly done when he finally found someone that caught his eye.

A young man, maybe late 20s in Peter's life span with thick, wavy, short, dark brown hair with a red visor nested on top of his head. The young man was sitting at the bar with his head bowed and looking as if he was writing on something with his tongue sticking out slightly a pair of light brown eyes alight with intelligence and excitement. The act looked completely adorable in Peter's personal opinion and he could only stare as the man took a sip of his drink not bothering to take a break from writing but the thing that caught Peter's attention in the action was the man's hands. Even from a distance they looked scarred and used to work, with rough skin and chipped nails and over the hands were a sort of metal glove but it was fitted over in parts, his knuckles completely encased in red tinted metal and on the palm was a dim circle. It was a very strange accessory and one that Peter had never seen on another person. Peter could also see a very unique, close cut goatee on the man's face and soft pink lips concealing brilliant white teeth.

Standing up, Peter excused himself for the night with a "Don't wait up" and he was making his way over with a confident stride and a charming grin on his face. His excitement doubling when he realised that his intended bed partner was smaller than him by quite a few inches. He didn't know why but he liked it when his partners were smaller, made him feel a bit more in control of the fun, having to be cautious of assassins and potential murderers may have been a reason for his choice in his partners hight...

As Peter grew closer, he was able to see more of the man's attire. The man was wearing a well worn dark red and black jacket that fitted the man well and a plain black shirt was visible between the open folds of the jacket. The man also had the same kind of metal on his hands along his thighs and down the backs of his calves and to his shoes, some of the paint job red and specks of it gold. He also wore dark shaded trousers that showed off muscled thighs and pleasing narrow hips. Shoulders were broad and arms were muscled well and seemed to have a better muscle form than himself! And he was supposed to be the hero!

With a new found determination, Peter sat down in the empty seat next to the young man and ordered a drink for him and another of what the man was having. He turned his body to face the young man who was giving him a confused and suspicious sideways glance as the drink was set in front of him.

Taking a breath, Peter finally decided to take the leap of faith, "Sup handsome. Name's Star Lord, protector of the Galaxy but I couldn't help but get lost in your eyes."

...He was screwed!

'Got lost in your eyes'?! God! That was cheesiest thing he'd ever come up with!

Silence stretched on for a couple of minutes, the man probably trying to save his brain from a disfunction due to Peter's lame attempt at asking him out. Then, the most absurd thing happened! The handsome devil _laughed_!

Peter really didn't know if he should be offended or relieved...

"O-Oh my God!" the man wheezed through his laughter, tears gathering in his eyes making them actually look like stars, "That-That was the worst pick-up line I've ever heard! And that's including my _own_!"

Faking offence, Peter placed a hand on his chest and put on a completely hurt expression, like his comment had physically wounded him whilst trying to ignore the fact that the man's laughter made his heart flutter a little, "Hey! I bought you a drink didn't I?"

"Yes. You did do that." the man raised his glass to him with a mischievous glint shining brightly in his eyes and a small grin curving his nicely formed lips, "Thanks for that." he then downed the glass and swallowed while deliberately putting his glass back down.

"What? Nothing else?" Peter's grin was probably devilish by now but he really liked the man's fiery spark, "Not gonna give me your name or say how cool my name is?"

The man seemed to contemplate on whether or not to say any of what Peter had just recommended but before he could 'settle' for an answer a low buzzing was emitting from the man's person. He reached down and tapped something in his inside jacket and the buzzing stopped but the man didn't seem to want to stay anymore.

Peter only just managed to snag the younger man's sleeve before he bolted out of Peter's life and probably never to be seen again, "Gonna tell me your name?"

"Name's Iron Man." he replied with a grin and a strange light in his eyes.

"Am I supposed to believe that Iron Man's your name?" Peter asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Am I supposed to believe that Star Lord's your name?" the man- Iron Man- asked with one of his own raised eyebrow.

With a flirtatious wink and a final farewell, Iron Man was off and out the door before he could even attempt to follow.

Huffing a sigh, Peter returned to his teammates who had become deafly silent since he threw himself back into the chair and place his head loudly on the table and exhaled a groan of total defeat. He knew it wouldn't be long before they started...

"HAHAHAHAHA!!"

And there it was...

"What's the matter, Quill? You loosing your touch with your person of interest?!" Rocket jibed as he howled with laughter once more, spilling his drink in the process.

Out of the corner of his eye, Peter could see Gamora roll her eyes; at the loud laughter or at how depressed he looked, he didn't know. Drax looked to be giving Peter a sympathetic look, Drax had always supported Peter and his _sleeping habit_ , saying that it was the way of every young warrior.

"I am Groot."

"I know right! That bag of flesh didn't look half bad and Quill completely blew it!" Rocket laughed again as he rolled off the table and hit the floor in his hysterical drunk laughter.

"I am Groot."

"Yeah," the raccoon answered, his tone taking on that of inquiry, "This one did seem to be more tech-ed out... Dammit Quill! You had a smart one that I could have had a whole _real_ conversation with!"

At this point, Peter tuned out all the chatter and, in Rocket's case, ranting and thought of the small brunette that had slipped through his fingers. But Peter had a feeling that he'd see the brunette again, one day in the future. But right now, he had a raccoon to hit.

"OW! QUILL!"

 

\----------

 

Tony knew that he'd be seeing the 'Star Lord' again one day, sooner or later but right now he had things to do and a phone that just wouldn't shut up! It didn't really help that GRACE, his new AI that he'd developed while there, found it amusing to annoy her creator to the point where he'd threaten her like he used to JARVIS and FRIDAY but now he threatened to sell her to the Intergalactic College the next galaxy over.

With a roll of his eyes and a long-suffering sigh, Tony answered his communications by tapping the ear com, "This is Tony Stark's voice mail, leave a message after the beep. Stop. Phoning. Me! And I'm not babysitting your kid tonight Dey, I did that last week!"

A long exaggeratedly drawn out groan came from the other end and Tony could distantly pick up the mumbling of, "I swear all Terran's are the same..." before the voice came a little more clearer, "I wasn't expecting you to babysit Tony, you'd only take apart my coffee machine again. I'm calling because I think I got you a job that could get you back home."

Tony's grin slipped off of his face as he instantly became more serious, his voice loosing all humour and sarcasm, "What do you have?"

"It's a job on a ship, they need more crew for their next couple of missions but I think they're heading in the Earth route, if you ask and if they like you enough, I bet they'd drop you off." Rhomann continued at a quicker pace, he always said that when ever Tony got serious he sounded really scary. Tony could only laugh at the time.

"How do you know that they wont just eat me? Or sell me off as 'rear meat' or to a slave junction?" that was always a serious issue, Tony had already had a couple of close calls with a few dealers but luckily he was accustomed to kidnapping and easily fought his way out of it. Though, he always found it extremely disturbing that some aliens would consider eating another intelligent life form.

"They wouldn't do that. They call themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy and have are heard to be extremely against that kind of thing. I've dealt with them before they're... a _lively_ group but you'd probably have some trouble fitting in at first but you could all probably bond over trust issues." Tony almost laughed at that comment as he remembered his first encounter with the Nova Corp guard, the meeting filled with threats, knives, repulsers and some scorched hair.

"What does the job entail?"

"They want someone capable in a fight, they also want you to be able to cook and to know the basics in engineering and robotics. I think you tick all the boxes. And you can't make your excuse that your just some week human because I've seen you fight and you are more than capable." he quickly added on before Tony could rant about what people thought of him and play off the act.

"Aw! Officer! You know me too well! But I am a delicate flower that is just so defenceless and easy to take." the laughter and sarcasm was like an instant mood lighter.

The other man gave a huff at the nickname but had given up long ago on telling Tony that 'Officer' wasn't his first name, said his farewell and to be at his place by tomorrow morning before he hung up.

Taking a deep, calming breath and telling himself not to get his hopes up, Tony tapped the ear piece to disconnect and looked up to the purple sky above filled with large dust clouds and several moons in various seizes. The sight was breathtakingly beautiful but he often found himself longing for the small specks of diamond like stars in the sky in a deep blue, almost black sky making the stars look evermore present.

He just wanted to go home.

He missed everything about Earth and hated the way he was forced to leave everything behind. Destroyed in chaos, short tempers and deaf ears. He missed his dearest friend, stuck by him since his MIT days and he missed the fiery red-head that dictated his life to every breathing moment. He missed Happy's overprotectiveness when he was on the job and missed his insanely good driving skills. He missed the roads, the cars, the towering glass buildings...

"Doc? Are you alright?" came the posh British female voice from over his com, jolting him out of his musings (she'd come to call him 'Doc' after she'd learnt that he was technically a doctor and he didn't use the title that much). And to his surprise, he felt a bit of wetness on his cheek which he quickly wiped away.

"Yeah, GRACE. I'm fine. I was just thinking." he assured in a slightly strained voice.

"Okay, Doc." the AI replied, with her comforting British accent; she sounded like she didn't believe him but was willing to let it go. Tony couldn't help but grin at the AI's progression over the past couple of months of being online.

It was at that point that Tony heard something shift at the opening of the ally. When he looked up, he was greeted by three men, their bodies blocking the only exit; their grins predatory and their eyes greedy.

"So I was right! You are a Terran!" one exclaimed to the his friends.

"Rear those are..." another contemplated, "Could get a lot of money for that meat, don't cha think?"

They were getting steadily closer and Tony couldn't help but shiver as he thought, Ugh, Poachers!

"If you gentlemen wont your teeth in check, I suggest you back the hell up before I make you." Tony growled out as he got into a defensive position, he knew they wouldn't take the easy way out. They never did.

Tony knew that they'd probably have nightmares for a couple of weeks about a man with eyes like burning coals and a vicious smile on his face as he smashed his metal encased hand into their jaws, cracking a few teeth along the way.

As one tried to touch him, they instantly recoiled holding their blistering hand in the other as they regarded his skin with something akin to shock. They couldn't really fight an enemy that they couldn't touch. The fight was over in a couple of minutes as Tony left the ally way that was now being occupied by three groaning men. He moved his red visor from the top of his head to cover the fiery glow to his eyes.

 


	2. Taking care

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chappy!  
> I had actually been waiting to write this chapter for ages and I've finally gotten round to it! Yay!

Rhomann Dey heaved a great sigh as he hung up his phone. He'd never known that Terran's could be so... intimidating. Not many people knew a Terran as they were pretty recluse to their own little world and having primitive technology. In all honesty, Rhomann had only ever met Peter Quill and he was known as a criminal, hero, highly childish and kind of dumb... but he was never once seen as mature or intimidating so that was the only thing everyone had to go on.

Tony Stark seemed the opposite to Peter. The man had a sense of humour and was playful with kids and has close friends, like himself and his wife, but he had an amazing intelligence that seemed only limited by the primitive technology in his world. It was only a matter of weeks before he was fixing space crafts and was one of the best engineers/mechanics Rhomann and many others had come to know!

But the man also seemed wise. Like he was years older than what he actually looked which was at least a 25 year old in Terran life span but the multiple scars showed signs of intentional and non-intentional wounds; torture and battle. Tony had a well defined figure that showed off his obvious capability in a fight and brown eyes, bright and calculating at every second.

After they had found him in the middle of town square, passed out and at the centre of a scorched circle, clothes tattered and bleeding with an embedded blue light visible in his chest. The results that came back were defiantly shocking as it showed extensive and painful experimentation and torture and Rhomann, in his little moment of sympathy, had brought the Terran back to his home to give him a little bit of a normal life.

He'd known about the experiments. He'd known after a day of having just met the young Terran. But it was still a shock to find that said Terran was burning hot with steam coming off of his skin and setting the bed covers on fire through a nightmare...

Rhomann had seen a lot of people break and shatter through their life choices or experiences. Hell, he'd been through plenty of shit in his life, including a near heart attack when his wife and child had nearly been killed in the Guardian of the Galaxy's first battle. But when he caught some of the mumbled panicked words of his guest, sometimes screaming in agony or hatred. He'd catch small things like, 'Why did you leave me? I was your friend too!' or 'Mum! No! Stop it! Don't kill her!' or 'It wasn't my fault! It wasn't my fault! It wasn't my fault!'. He was able to put two and two together to understand that a friend of his had betrayed him and had blamed him for many things many times over.

The amount of times he had to hold a crying and cooling down man was getting old and Rhomann would usually get half the story of what happened. It wasn't hard to say that the kid had PTSD in more ways than one.

"You ever going to tell me what you always dream about?" Rhomann had pressed gently after he'd calmed down from another fit of screaming, crying and rapidly repeating apologies after he'd woken up from another nightmare.

Tony looked at the other, seemingly older fellow with evaluating brown eyes and for a moment it looked as if he'd turn down the Nova Cop's offer but at the long sigh of defeat, Rhomann knew that'd he'd get what he asked for.

"In my world... there is your normal, average person, much like you. But every so often, someone with a cruel and intelligent enough mind would do something to others to make them different... to make them unique and try to turn them into a toy for them to play with and kill off people that they know will someday knock them off their high pedestal. But when those people escape from their influence... some dedicate themselves to protecting and saving the world and try to stop it from happening again.  
There are actually several groups but the most famous was the Avengers. They had a mixed policy. It didn't matter if you were military, spy, assassin, genius, super human, mutant, if you wanted to fight and the others liked you then you could stay. I was named 'Iron Man' for my technological suit."

Tony gave a soft chuckle but the look in his eyes held such sorrow that it seemed more bitter-sweet than happy.

"Years later, something came up and it divided our team, our family... Long story short, our great and noble leader that _never lied and was right about everything_ , cared about his brainwashed buddy that killed my parents more than me. So, when I attacked, finding out he'd been lying about my parents death this whole time, I flipped. I was overcome with rage and I just wanted to kill both of them. But me trying to kill his best bud, didn't sit well with Cap so he beat me half to death and crushed my suit's power source as well as crushing my ribs before picking up his best friend and leaving me behind in a potentially hostile environment."

It was said almost off-handedly and Rhomann himself would have missed it if he wasn't paying attention like he was. He could hardly believe his ears... And this 'Cap' was supposed to be the leader?! The man was a complete disgrace in his eyes and couldn't help but feel disgusted at the prospect of leaving a man behind like that; in the middle of an argument or not, it just didn't happen!

"I never went back home after that... Do you know that I look younger than what I actually am, Dey?"

The soft-spoken question to the Xandarian was unexpected and thew off the man for a minute before he shook his head.

"They only needed a couple of months to get the new serum acquainted with my DNA before they put me in a chair and fired my memories. I couldn't let them complete the final step... and I couldn't find a way out... so I found a different way out..." Tony sniffed and tried to play it off with a well-played smile and an easy wave of his hand, "You know the rest, Officer."

The Nova Corp member looked over at him, eyes filled with something akin to sympathy before he draw the younger looking man into hug and didn't let go until the silent tears that slowly rolled down the genius' face stopped completely and then waited until he fell asleep once again.

Then, Rhomann stood there and looked at the Terran on the bed and there he felt the beginnings of an overprotectiveness over the abused genius settle in his stomach.

Rhomann had never knew it at the time but the first time Tony had trusted him with a bit of his past, he had triggered Rhomann's inner over protective parent side. Granted, he knew that Tony wasn't his son or related to him whatsoever and from what the Terran said and how he acts, it was clear that he was defiantly older than how he looked but Rhomann couldn't help it! All he needed to think of was the old scars and the blue circular light and the betrayal of a man that was supposed to be a friend. But one image caught his eye and that was all he needed to witness to become the full overprotective package...

It's been a long day at work and he had his wife had made plans to go our for a date night. They had hired a babysitter for Duranna, their daughter, a week prier to the date. It was no secret that he had been looking forward to it and was happy to get some quality time with his beloved wife. They hardly seemed to go out as a couple anymore. So when he got a call saying that their babysitter had cancelled at the last second, claiming to be ill, he was a little saddening to hear.

He'd gone home with his head hung slightly in defeat and preparing to see the disappointment in his wife's eyes when he had to tell her to throw the lovely dress she had picked out for the evening back into the darkness of her wardrobe. He was going to tell her that until he saw Tony and his daughter talking and in hushed whispers, sitting together cross-legged on the carpet, Duranna's face pulled into a smile of pure happiness while Tony held his signature grin of amusement (though, it seemed more softer around the edges) glancing at his wife that twirled and stretched out her arms for them to observe.

In the end, they both gave a sure and firm nod before they turned back to his wife with thumbs up and bright eyes.

"You look so pretty mummy!"

"Stunning Mrs.Dey!"

Rhomann could only watch on as he watched his wife's smile brighten at the compliments before looking at Tony with grateful eyes, "Thank you so much Tony for doing thing. I'm not sure we'd have been able to get a babysitter on such a short notice."

"No problem Mrs.Dey." Tony replied with a slight dust of red on his cheeks from the small praise.

He then walked out from the hallway, kissing his wife, kissing his daughters forehead and ruffling Tony hair electing a loud 'HEY!' before he went to get changed for his and his wife's date.

Yeah, he definitely saw Tony as someone more than another guy he'd found on the job.

It wasn't until a month later that Rhomann found out how much of a genius the Terran was. It's funny how he was able to find out through a small accented, female voice coming through his earpiece going, "Oooooo! I'm a ghost! Ooooo!"

When he'd retold the story to Tony, the man asking about his work, did he come to a proper understanding. The Terran had sat their in silence for a time, his face perfectly blank, until he threw himself on the floor with laughter, "G-GRACE! He-haha-He bought it! Hahaha!"

"Indeed, Doc," came the same voice from earlier that day but now with a bit of a humorous tone, "Though, I'd say the test was a success."

"W-Who?.... What?...."

Rhomann was truly lost for words right now but it was soon cleared up for him when Tony explained his new coding of the AI (Artificial Intelligence) he'd named GRACE. He'd explained that he'd made a few back on Earth and that they were learning AI's and on his last couple of AI's they had developed personalities and were good at expressing their emotions.

"And why are you looking at me like that? Wait... You guys do have AI's here right?"

"Er-Yeah but... Nothing as advanced as developing their own personalities..." Rhomann gave Tony a look before asking, "Are you a genius?"

"I'm very well known as a genius back home and I've always been a fast learn-."

Tony hardly got to finish the sentence before Rhomann was pushing a very futuristic toaster in his arms and then he walked away...

It was fair to say the Tony Stark was a fucking genius as he'd fixed Rhomann's toaster in a matter of hours and had gone onto engines and other mechanics in a matter of weeks. Tony could only look at his slack-jawed face in confusion before he picked up the solder and started to mend the broken engine of his old fighter ship. it wasn't long before he got a job as a mechanic, earning units and saving them up.

Another thing that came up was that Tony was a great cook.

He'd had a late night shift at his work so he expected everyone to be in bed and fast asleep. What he didn't expect was a soft sounding melody in a language he'd never heard before and a smell of herbs and spices wafting over his nose and leading him to the kitchen where he saw Tony dishing up a plate of something he'd never seen before.

"It's lasagna. I wanted some Earth food for a change and my mum always made me this dish whenever I was feeling down. She said that her mother did it for her as a child when they were in Italy-- a different country on my planet-- and she said it was always calming for her and it's always calming for me..." the Terran then took on a very far away look, like he was lost in a world of painful memories that he wish he could change or relive just one more time.

Rhomann wasn't always very comfortable with that look on the geniuses face. It made him seem older and more broken...

"Can I have some?" he blurted out, effectively wiping the look on his face away for one of confusion before it was immediately replaced by glee.

Okay, he'll admit! He was a little scared of how Terran dishes would taste and he expected it to taste like molten trash (especially with the made-from-scratch ingredients) but it was surprisingly good and before he knew it, Rhomann was asking for seconds.

He quite liked Tony hanging around, he had a weird taste in music, Rhomann had often caught him singing something while working on another engine. He'd found that the lyrics were about death and destruction but Tony had assured him that it wasn't the words he remembered but the 'Awesome' beat that went with it.

The Terran was a genius and Rhomann admired the way he'd been beaten down again and again but got up and carried on forwards. He was great around kids, telling exaggerated stories of a world sent into war and one man changing a whole lot by doing the right thing.

Rhomann had been there when Tony started to put together his armour again, making metal gloves with circular blue disks that Tony called his repulsers, his signature weapon in battle. He also made metal plates go along his thighs which concealed some needed tools if it was an emergency and some rocket boots on his shoes. With his red visor down and his red plated mask that sealed over his nose and mouth to provide oxygen, Tony did look really cool.

"Is this what you used to look like?"

"Nah. I had a full body armour of gold titanium alloy with rockets and guns installed throughout the thing. Oh! And I had this mask that covered all of my face as well. I'd pilot the suit with my whole body while FRIDAY, my other AI at home, told me of incoming fire. The whole thing was painted red and gold but, I guess, if I did that now, I'd draw way too much bad attention too myself."

Rhomann took a little time to consider this before he realised that he was missing the biggest question of all...

"Why did you remake it?"

Tony's smile fell off and Rhomann could clearly see the longing look in his eyes as Tony directed a barely there smile at him. What Tony was about to say would be hard on him for the next few days. He wanted to keep Tony safe and away from people who would lie and manipulate to get to him and harm him in some way. And he figured that if he and his family wasn't enough for the bright smiled genius then he'd have to find someone that would be...

"I want to go home..."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you liked it!  
> Will write to you soon! ;P


	3. What consequences?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an Earth chapter! In Steve PVO kind of thing.  
> Hope you liked it!!

Seven months.

It had been seven months since that god awful day... The day that Rhodey was paralysed from the waste down. The day that Natasha did something that was now the worst decision of her whole life. The day that Vision felt for the first time ever, betrayed by the person he considered to be his best friend. The day that their family truly broke apart. The day that Tony went missing...

A lot had happened in just seven months. Tony had gone to the RAFT to talk with some of the Ex-Avengers and get some information but he didn't come back. It was a day after Tony had left before FRIDAY could contact them and tell them where Tony was and that she had been cut off from him for over 24 hours. Natasha and Vision took the quinjet and got there as fast as possible. An hour of nervous flying later and they had arrived in Siberia, in old and abandoned HYDRA base. Upon entry, they could feel the cold atmosphere, a chill in the air that sent shivers down their spines, what ever they found there, they knew they wouldn't like it. And they couldn't have been more right.

They found the Super Soldiers, shot while in their Cryo Chamber, dead. They moved farther into the base but upon the spots of blood and a lot of disturbance in the dust, they followed farther into the base. All they found was Tony's armour. It was ripped apart, just a pile of scrap metal with the helmet thrown across the room and the Captain's shield laying not too far from it. There was blood on the armour, inside and out; there was too much blood... Upon seeing it, Natasha crashed to her knees, feeling numb. She could feel hot tears fall down the cold skin of her cheeks but she made no move to brush them away. Trembling hands picked up the helmet, dented and damaged beyond repair... this was all her fault. She clutched the helmet, the only thing left of the genius that she had once called her bother.

There was no sign of a body or any trace of it other than the blood that had dried on the armour. Vision had found some camera's around the base and an abandoned laptop but both had been wiped of anything remotely useful...

They were forced to return home and tell everyone the bad news. Rhodes could only shake his head, refusing to believe that his brother had been taken again. Pepper had all out collapsed on the floor and sobbed and cried with a trembling and crying Happy Hogan circling his arms around her small frame, telling her that it would be alright and that Tony would be strong for them, that he would come back safe and sound. No one bothered to correct him...

It was a month of searching for the genius but they came back each day with dark, tired eyes and nothing to show for it. The rest of the world was calling Tony out, calling him a lier and that he was turning his back on the people and that 'Captain America would have done it differently'. No one wanted to believe that their hundred year icon had gone against the people, so they crucified Tony and slandered his name. Stark Industries was suffering terribly at the publics' hand. It was only made worse when a file of Ross and all of his covered up illegal crimes were leaked out to the public and was arrested for his crimes. Now Tony was a traitor to the American public.

It was at the end of the second month two videos were leaked to the internet with no known origin, in a few short minutes, everyone seemed to stop and stare in disbelief at the videos that confronted them. In a matter of an hour everyone had seen the videos and stared in complete shock. The first video was of the true death of Howard and Maria Stark. It was of the Winter Soldier snapping Maria's neck and punching Howard in the face until he breathed no more; killing them both brutally before he drove away with out a backwards glance. The second video was of Iron Man watching the video, unaware that he was being recorded. Everyone watched as he looked at his parents' murderer and asked his friend and leader if he knew all along. Captain America had known for three years... The world watched in horror as Iron Man went into rage and attacked the Super Soldiers. They watched as he was beaten into the ground, watched as the Winter Soldier tried to rip his arc reactor out but ended up with his arm blasted off. They watched as Captain America hit his friend repeatedly around the head with his shield before he smashed it off and slammed his vibranium shield into his arc reactor, picked up the Winter Soldier and left Iron Man alone in the base as he slowly closed his eyes...

The public had done a whole 180. They asked where Tony was and if he was alive or not, they asked if it was real. Iron Man was missing and the footage had not been tampered with. It was all real...

The public shouted for justice for Iron Man and soldiers or people of law shouted and chanted 'no man left behind'. It was chaotic but the group of Tony's remaining and loyal friends where overjoyed with the sudden support and the clearing of Tony's name.

After the fourth month, Tony hadn't been found. There were no demands. No contact or hidden messages. No one could find Tony Stark and as the fifth month was starting, people were convinced that Captain America had killed Iron Man. He was soon declared dead a week later.

The funeral wasn't so open to the public, only the people that Tony knew and where friends with could go. Tony had an effect on many lives in his life and about a hundred people had turned up to say their last farewell to the man that had once protected them. Natasha had been surprised to see Christine Everheart in the crowd of mourners but she held no note-pad or any kind of camera as she looked at the empty coffin with red rimmed eyes. When they talked to one another, Natasha had been shocked to find that her and Tony had been close after their shaky start had been resolved which was the only reason that she wasn't pulled off of her assignment of Tony Stark. The team was even more shocked to find Bruce Banner in the crowd and he cried on Natasha's shoulder when she reached him. Bruce was back and he was hear to stay; if not for himself, then for his friend, Tony...

On the seventh month, the government had decided to pardon the hiding Avengers. They still needed superheroes but the Accords was still going to be put forward with some details changed for the better. The public were furious with the news as they didn't want the team that had murdered Iron Man to protect them and wanted justice. But the rouge team of Ex-Avengers had been pardoned and now the rest of the world had to deal with it.

This is what the group of Tony's true friends had to face.

They stared quietly from the large door, watching the team of traitors laugh and joke like they had done no wrong or without a care in the world. They stared at the untroubled smiles that stretched over each of their faces, happy to be home and happy to be accepted. The group in the hallway was noticed one by one. Their smiled slipped off their faces at the blank expressions directed their way. Slowly, they stood up and faced the people that had been forced to face the public and onslaught of emotions while the others had a seven month holiday.

It was the Captain that spoke first, "Where's Tony?"

Some of them sneered at the name that passed the Captain's lips but it wasn't the name, it was the way that the Captain said it.

"You don't get to say that name..." Rhodes growled from his chair, hands clenched tightly around the arm resters in his internal rage, "Only his friends get to call him that and you lost that right long ago."

Rhodes only felt a small bit a satisfaction at Rogers' flinch at his harsh words.

Pepper then stepped forward, standing high and looking down at the rouge Avengers with cold fury clear in her eyes. She held a clip board in her hands and immediately started to read from it.

"Stark Industries is pulling out of the Avengers Initiative so no farther funding will be given to you. No damages will be payed for you and no food or bills will be payed for you either. You are an independent group and will have to manage your own team and organise your own meetings or public appearances because SI is no longer helping you at all. You will have to fix and upgrade your own weapons or hire your own engineer to do so. The Avengers Compound has been left to you by SI but if I had it my way, I would have torn it down long ago... You are also not allowed on any of Tony Stark's or SI's properties. If you wish to get into contact with SI, write a letter or email and we will try to get back to you as soon as possible."

There was silence as everyone processed what the red head had said. Clint was the first to speak.

"So... is this Stark being petty? Is this why the asshole wouldn't face us? Is he that much of a cow--"

He was abruptly cut off by a hard punch to his face that made him stumble back. Blood gushed out of his broken nose and he could only stare in disbelief at the furious red head in front of him. Natasha held her trembling fists to her side as she glared at Clint with no small amount of fury and disgust.

"Don't say anything when you know nothing, Barton." she spat at him before she stepped back again with folded arms.

Dread curled around in his stomach at her words. She wouldn't hit him if he hadn't made some kind of grave mistake. What was he missing? What didn't he know...?

Before anyone could say anything, Wanda stepped forward, her eyes a deeps angry red and red mist meandering between her fingers. No one moved at this. She was powerful and she was not to be messed with.

"How dare you! After everything that you put us through! After everything we've lost and sacrificed in order to protect ourselves! If Stark hadn't--"

"Shut the fuck up!" everyone stared in shock at the paralysed man that had shouted at the angered woman, "When are you going to _grow the fuck up_ and consider other people! Your whole life has been about one little fraction of a picture, you never searched to back it up. You've taken action against something you didn't even understand completely with zero regard to everyone else about your actions! The people have suffered by your hand to get 'revenge' on Tony when he didn't even do it!"

"He is a monster!"

"And so are you!" Everyone stilled at that. Hurt was clear in Wanda's eyes and it looked like Rogers was getting angry with the accusation, "You go after a man because his name was on a missile. He didn't even fucking fire it! In your delusional world, it's all his fault because it's the first thing that popped into your _fucking head_! Where you even aware that Tony didn't even sell them that! It was _Obadiah_! The man that had been dealing under the table behind Tony's back and tried to _kill_ the man when he was too close to finding out! Your logic is based around a child's misunderstanding. Your not a fucking child anymore! So wake the fuck up and stop blaming Tony for the impossible because it's _fucking pathetic and_ _it's pissing me off!!_ "

Silence surrounded the room as Rhodey's words hit the enhanced woman full force. Forcing her to see the many faults with her belief that she had chosen to ignore until now but she couldn't give it up that easy.

"He's still a monster. He created ULTRON and killed my brother in the process! That's his fault! And he locked me up on the RAFT and in my own home!" She screamed, the memory of her brother and the onslaught of emotion making her rage build.

"That's not his fault. That's your's" Bruce started calmly, though his eyes flashed green at the memory of the woman unleashing the Hulk on a vulnerable city. He was angry that the team had allowed her to think like this for so long. Not giving her anything to resolve her issues or giving her the correct facts about everything. Why had they let this escalate so much? "You forced Tony to see his worst fears. You pushed a man with a severe case of PTSD to make ULTRON. You had more of a hand in making ULTRON more than either Tony or I. ULTRON killed your brother not Tony. And if your saying that Tony killed your brother because of ULTRON then you helped in putting your own brother in an early grave."

Rhodes spoke up after that, everyone in shocked silence and staring at Wanda who's eyes are back to brown. She had slid onto the floor, crying her eyes out as she was faced with facts that she couldn't deny. It was the truth. And she hated it.

"Tony made you stay inside because everyone wanted you killed. If you had gone on the internet, you would have seen tags like, _'Hang the Witch'_ or something. If you had gone out, people would have tried to hurt you and you would have lost your control and possibly harmed someone else which would definitely have gotten you hanged. He left you with Vision because you were practically best friends and you didn't like Tony. He also had to deal with _Captain Asshole_ calling you a _kid_ and saying that he was doing wrong when he barely knew half the truth but wouldn't let Tony finish! Tony didn't even know about the RAFT! That was all Ross!"

No one said a thing after that. All of them looking shocked or unconvinced. Steve wasn't buying it. He was so convinced that he was right and that Tony was so far in the wrong that he was still surprised that the genius had supported it. Clint looked scared, like he'd made a terrible mistake and didn't want to know the full extent of the consequences.

"Wh-Where's Stark?"

The group doesn't answer for a while. Their head's bowed and trying not to break down into tears.

"He's dead." came the strained voice of Happy, tears already falling down his face at the admission, "They couldn't find the body but their was too much blood of him to have survived... We had to burry an _empty fucking box_! Everyone's seen the videos, everyone knows that _Captain America_ _lied_ to his teammate about his parents death, beat the hell out of him and then left him for dead... Your not heroes, your _murderers_ and every single one of you helped in the killing."

No one said anything.

One by one, the group left. Pepper and Happy left with tears in their eyes and bowed heads; not wanting to look at them any more. Bruce and Natasha left with shaking heads, Bruce trying his best not to Hulk out and the Other Guy seemed more sad than enraged that his best friend that had fully accepted him and was never scared of him was gone. Natasha was doing her best not to show weakness but a single tear slipped through that she quickly brushed it away.

The only one left was James Rhodes. He looked at each of them with a blank face. He wanted nothing more than to scream and cry and hit them. It was all their fault that he was gone. His gaze rested on the Captain.

The Captain looked about ready to throw up, pale and clammy looking. Rhodes felt no sympathy for any of them.

"I-I'm so so--"

He cut off the archer with a cold look. The man was freely crying, looking like he was desperately trying to hold back a sob.

"You're not sorry... None of you are as sorry as me." he slowly began, "I've known Tony since MIT. A small little kid that was too smart for his own good but forced to grow up without a proper child hood. I've seen him at his highest and lowest. Seen him mourn his mother when she died and drink himself senseless to try and forget the betrayal of his latest love interest that was only there for his money. I saw him stumbling through sand hills in Afghanistan when I finally found him after three months. He came back to me with a six inch hole in his chest and a fear of water because the _fuckers_ wanted to see how long he could hold his breath. I've been there for him since the beginning. My relationship with him was much like yours and Mr.Banes' relationship, Rogers. 'Together forever, till the day we die' we always said to each other."

Rhodes looked the Captain in the eyes, ignoring the glassy eyes people that he used to call his team but now, he saw them as nothing. He didn't care that his own tears were welling up in his eyes and falling down him face.

"You didn't just kill my friend. You killed my brother." his voice cracked at the last bit but he ignored it as he rolled away. He ignored the people shouting at each other as he left. Barton shouting about why the Captain lied to them.

They deserved no sympathy from him or anyone. For a long time no one will. They had broken the law, killed their families and killed their hero.

They were nothing to Rhodey anymore.

They were only murderers that got away with the crime...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And... DONE!!  
> More will come soon!! ;P


	4. To become a Guardian... you need to cook

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YES!!! NEW CHAPTER!!!!!  
> Just finished with early mock exams till farther on in the year so that's a relief!  
> This chapter is mainly convocation and stuff so ENJOY!!

 It had been a long night for everyone...

In the end, they'd all stayed for far too long in the bar and ended up far too drunk to comprehend anything they did. Gamora was probably the one to do the least damage to the building. Drax had gotten extremely drunk to the point where he was crying and showing everyone that would so much as glance at him, pictures for his old family and how he wished he could join them. Rocket had been close to making a highly dangerous chemical mixture of some kind of explosion with some of the alcohol around the bar; Groot ended up helping him by using his branches to snag all the bottles from behind the bar without the owners notice. Gamora just ended up beating up a couple of guys that tried to chat her up, which was nothing new... And Peter was just drunkenly talking to the bartender about the most cutest guy he missed out in bedding that night.

Peter may have been hammered but he was able to pick up what the guy with bright blue skin said in response, "Oh! D'you mean that guy Tony? Smartest guy alive if I had any say so..." the rest was all blurred together and he may have puked over the bar... which he was not proud of...

In the end, they were all told that they weren't welcome in the bar ever again so they all retired to their ship with unsure footing and messed-up vision.

When Peter woke up, the only thing he could really remember was the big brown eyes of the cutest man he had ever seen but when he looked beside him, he noticed that the other half of his bed was cold and no cute naked guy was to be seen. With a pained groan and a slip of his hand which made him fall off the bed, face first, which gained an even more pained groan.

If Peter had any sense, he'd know that he did not look good on that particular morning. He'd slept in his clothes from yesterday which were crumpled and- was that puke?! His hair was most likely sticking up in all directions, his mouth tasted like something had crawled in it and died and he could only squint at the dim lighting on the ship and hiss at every too shiny surface that reflected the morning sun or suns on the planet they were currently on.

As he slowly and painfully made his way to the kitchen, he saw that Gamora already occupied one of the chairs, nursing a cup of coffee (or something familiar to it) in her hands. Her hair was only slightly mussed but other than that, everything was in place and in perfect condition especially her judging jade eyes that were currently aimed in his direction. All Peter could muster up was a sigh as he grabbed some orange juice and started to drink out of the carton (he would have had coffee but he was way too hungover to try to operate his 'upgraded' coffee machine, courtesy of Rocket).

"That is now _your_ carton of juice as I will not be drinking out of that again." Gamora deadpanned as she watched in disgust as Peter spilt some of the juice down himself. Peter just looked at her with blurry eyes before he shrugged and went back to downing the juice.

Only once he had sat down did Drax walk in, rubbing his head like it greatly pained him and sat down with barely any of the grace he usually possessed.

"I must apologise for the way I acted last night, I fear that I was too intoxicated to understand what I was doing..." he said gently.

"Yeah," Peter mumbled into his carton, "You were out of your box."

At this, Drax gave Peter a confused frown, "I know no constriction that surrounds me or aware that I had broken out of it."

Peter and Gamora could only stare at the literal warrior before they both got back to what they were doing; it was too early and they were too hungover to explain anything to Drax.

When Peter's stomach growled, he could only groan more at the unfairness of it all, "Ugh! This is why we need someone that can cook on the team..." The others could only nod in agreement. It had been only a month or so since the team had sent out a request to their few allies (cough, cough, Dey) to try and find someone that could cook for them. Peter could cook but it was always burnt as the kitchen was not his area of expertise and his one-night-stands had always cooked him some breakfast before they left. Drax was a warrior and had never learnt the art of cooking due to this and other people always cooked for him; Gamora was the same in that area but a little more death and destruction. Rocket had looked at Peter as if he were insane when he had asked the talking raccoon and Groot would only make them salad and refused to use the grill incase he caught on fire.

After they had one too many nights in a bar to fend off their hungry needs, the team had decided that they needed an extra member that could cook but also hold his own in a fight so the rest of them didn't have to worry when they got attacked.

They'd left it to the Nova Corp guard to find them someone with specific skills and could cook. They definitely needed to cook.

It was yesterday morning that they had gotten a call from the trusted Xandarian saying that he found the perfect guy but if they hurt him, they'd find themselves on top of the most wanted list so fast that they wouldn't even have time to run. Gamora had been impressed that the man for hire had inspired that much loyalty from one person especially when they found out that the Xandarian had only known the man for just over a year or so.

Peter had been instructed to meet them today so they had to get a move on soon...

"Gamora..." he said in a pleading tone which earned him a raised eye-brow, "Can you pilot the ship today? I don't think I'll be good enough to see where I'm going with all the bright lights and shit..."

Wordlessly, Gamora got into the cockpit and started up his baby. The only thing that happened while they were driving was Peter attempted to shoot the raccoon for talking so loud. Unfortunately, Drax had stopped him but pulling the gun out of his too loose grip.

 

\-----------

 

It had only taken them a couple of hours to get to Xandar and Peter had to say that the damage from last time they had been there was completely gone and looked like there was never a battle there in the first place.

A couple of minutes later, the team were all dressed up in there bad ass and non-crimpled gear and were walking out to meet up with the patiently standing Nova Corp guard with his hands clasped in front of him.

"So... Where's this new recruit that can cook?" Peter said while licking his lips.

Gamora and Dey both, gave him an unimpressed stare which he could only grin and shrug his shoulders to.

"He'll be here in a minute but I need to warn you first." Dey stated neutrally with a stern facial expression.

"We know." Peter said while he rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips, "Be nice and be gentle. Don't scare him and don't kill him or get him killed."

"It's not just that..." he said while looking at them each in turn before he decided to tell them, "Tony... isn't of the norm. Sure. He's amazing in his own way but he's been through a lot of pain in his life and I just need to warn you that he can sometimes have... bad dreams. It's not so bad now but... I just want you to be aware."

The team looked at each other with varying degrees of confusion, except Drax because he seemed to understand and acknowledged it with a nod.

It was only a second later that the man for hire appeared and to Peter's great shock, it was the guy he saw in the bar last night. The other man seemed to recognise him too as he did a double take before grinning at him.

"Nice to see you again 'Star Lord'" he said with no small amount of humour. He then looked at the others and smiled something polite and inclined his head to them, not seeming at all disturbed or taken-aback by the walking Raccoon with a big ass blaster on his hip or the giant tree-man, "Name's Tony, Tony Stark. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The others could only look between Peter and Tony before shrugging it off and going back to what they were there for.

"I am Gamora," Gamora stepped forward to introduce herself first as Peter apparently wasn't going to do it, "This is Drax the Destroyer," the muscle bound alien nodded to Tony, "Rocket," the raccoon didn't do anything other than stare the man down, "Groot," Groot did his own little intro as well, "And this is our leader, Peter Quill."

Tony gave a small smirk, "It's an honour to meet you all," he turned his eyes on the still dazed Peter, "And to finally know your real name."

"Where you from Fleshy?" Rocket asked with analysing eyes.

"I'm from the small green and blue plant I like to call Earth but I think the space population likes to call it 'Terra'. I have no idea why you call it that; it's not even that bad!"

"You are Terran?" Drax asked but he didn't wait for an answer, "That is splendid news, our team leader is half of your race!" at this, Drax slapped a hard hand to Peter's shoulder; Peter would have fallen over if he wasn't so used to the ripped alien throwing his weight around.

"How old are you?" Gamora asked, generally interested.

Tony went to open his mouth to respond but was quickly interrupted by the Xandarian, "His 25 in Terran years." The Xandarian was too quick in answering for Gamora's taste which earned the Terran a suspicious glance; she would most likely interrogate him later, she'd done the same thing when Peter had taken the last of the coffee and he was too quick to deny her accusation. The woman was damn scary...

"You are but a child?" Drax asked in surprise.

"A child?" Tony asked sceptically as he looked to Dey with a raised eye-brow. 

The Nova Corp had a small, barely there smile as he said, "By Tony's information, Terran's actually turn adult when they are 18 so Tony wouldn't be classed as a child."

"I find that he is still a child." Drax countered with a frown, "He has not seen battle to prove himself of his man-hood."

At this, Quill and Tony looked at the muscle-bound alien with raised eye-brows and disbelieving expressions. Quill knew that on Drax's planet, the rules and traditions were a lot more different than his own but he never knew that fact. To say that you could only be a man by fighting... It must be an extremely violent planet if that was the case. Shuddering, Quill could only be relieved that he was never on that planet. God, he can just imagine a thousand Draxs flexing their muscles and pecs while they throw a punch at any person walking by. It would be Hell...

Tony gave a small laugh as he shook his head, "Trust me, I've seen more of my fair share of blood and death." It was loose and carefree but the tense set to his shoulders had Quill wondering what kinds of battle or fighting the guy had seen.

It was only when Tony gave him a weird look did Peter realise that he was staring at the man for way too long to be natural so, fighting down an embarrassed blush, Peter cleared his throat before he waved his hand a little at Tony while he said, "So... you've been in the army or something?"

A slightly amused smirk settled on the man's face that made Peter's stomach turn into butterflies and answered with a devious kind of glint to his eyes, "Or something."

There was silence as the team considered the mysterious Terran and his answer, Drax taking on a look of denial and disbelief at Tony's admittance to battle, the alien could not think of the small, young Terran who had big brown eyes that made him take on a form of innocence. This was a child standing before him in Drax's eyes but he would help the child prove himself a man if he so wishes it!

Rocket then piped up from the silence, an small excited gleam in his eyes as his beady eyes as he stared intently at the tech along Tony's wrists. The raccoon crossed his arms as he stared at Tony with an expression of boredom (how the raccoon was able to make his face pull off that expression was a mystery to Peter). Rocket nodded to the tech and asked loudly, "Where'd you get that?"

Looking down at Rocket with joy in his eyes, Tony rolled up his sleeves slightly on his leather jacket to present the red metal band around his wrist, "Made it." was all he said before the bands started to move up and around his whole hand, a bright blue disk in the centre of his palm which whined slightly as it got brighter. Then, Tony aimed his open hand at the wall beside then and fired off something which left a rather impressive scorch mark.

By then, Rocket was looking fairly impressed at the guy's tech that he had apparently made himself. The circle was dull and in a few short seconds, the metal retracted back into a metal band.

"I call them repulsers." Tony suggested to the smirking raccoon.

"What's it's power source?"

"An arc reactor."

"A what?" Rocket asked, a little confused frown creasing his furry face slightly, "Never heard of it."

"I made it. Had to make a new element to make it work properly." he said offhandedly.

"Make what work properly?" Gamora questioned with a frown.

"Er- I don't think we're really that close for me to tell you any of the old sob-story." Tony motioned with a dismissive wave of his hand. He then looked at Rocket and grinned, "Yes you can use it but I'll have to be plugged in. I'm kind of attached to the power source."

Dey snorted at the statement making the adorably young man glare at the guard which didn't really seem threatening as the man just ended up looking like an angered kitten in Peter's eyes.

It seemed the Tony gave up on glaring, knowing it was ineffective and settled with an over exaggerated eye-roll; the smallest of grins appearing later showing just how fond he was of the Nova Corp guard. With a huff, the man turned towards the group again with his arms crossed and a partially serious face, "So... you wanna hire me or not?"

The team looked at each other in silent conversation before coming to an agreement.

"Can you cook?"

Tony's answer was a blindingly beautiful smile sent their way as he nodded.

"Yeah, I can cook plenty for ya."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course Tony can cook! He's a f**king genius!  
> Stay tuned for future chapters ;P


	5. Last nights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry about the whole hold up for this chapter but it’s here now, yay!  
> I’ve been super busy at school and it’s my last year (YES! FINALLY!) so all my teachers are breathing down my neck and I’ve been trying to finish some other stories… So sorry for the hold up but chapter 5 is finally here (crowds cheering!). ENJOY!!

Tony couldn't help but think of how messed up in the head he was for thinking this was a good idea...

He and the team had agreed to meet again in the morning, Tony wanting to say goodbye to the friends he's made on Xandar and the Guardians of the Galaxy wanting to get some proper rest before they have to travel again.

After Peter announced to the rest that Tony was coming with them due to his ability to cook, they all took off, probably searching for a warm bed to stay the night. Tony was left with just Rhomann. And he took great joy in seeing the man shrink under his deathly glare, a glow of fire flickering in his brown eyes.

"I thought this job was for a crew, not a team." Tony said lowly as he spun on his heel and walked away, Dey jogging to keep up.

Deep down, Tony knew that Rhomann was trying to be a good friend but he couldn't help but think of how well his last team bonding experience had gone. It was freaking hell! Even before Steve through a Mother of all Tantrums! The only real decent ones were Bruce, Natasha and Thor (but Thor was usually off world and couldn't always be there), the rest of the self-righteous dicks looked down at him for his past life. They never believed him to be a true hero, even after he almost died in The Battle of New York.

Teams had so much drama and there was always an odd one out that everyone alienated. It just so happened that Tony was the alien in The Avengers and he did not want to go around with a new team at his back, just waiting for them to kill him off!

"Tony," Rhomann pleaded as they walked down the empty, vast hallway that lead to the elevators, "They're the only ones that wouldn't eat you or sell you for certain. They're good people, if a little misguided, but no one’s perfect. Just give them a chance."

Closing his eyes and breathing deeply, Tony powered through his memory of angry faces and a pain in his chest that had just kept growing and growing. When he was done, he looked back at Dey and couldn't help but smile, if he didn't know better, he would have guessed that this man was related to Happy... "Okay," he breathed before he smirked at the other man, eyes glinting with mischief, "But this doesn't mean that your getting out of buying my last meal on Xandar and don't you dare pass me off for something cheap!"

A sigh was the only thing Tony got from the Nova Corp guard but Tony could tell that the man was smiling.

Once they were in the elevator, Tony's brows furrowed as he recalled something and he turned to his friend with a questioning look on his face, "Hey, why did you tell them that I was 25? It's not like my real age would have changed much, if anything I wouldn't be considered a child to them if you hadn’t interrupted..."

At this, Rhomann gave a sheepish smile to Tony before he replied, "Peter is from Terra and he would have been suspicious if you turned out to be 50 years old when you look like your barely out of teenage-hood. 25 years was generous if you ask me..."

"Hey!" Tony yelled as he punched the other man on the arm, folding his arms and looking away from him with a humph, "I'll have you know that I preferred my golden 50s. As a kid, I can hardly look as sexy and dangerous as I did then..." he finished off with a pout.

The guard could only laugh and shake his head at the Terran's antics, "I don't think I can picture you in that category of your description. When you glare, you look like a puppy trying to be angry."

Tony could only roll his eyes as Rhomann chuckled at his own joke, muttering something about disrespecting elders. When they came to the ground floor, Tony couldn't help but look at everything in sight, trying to take in the unique and futuristic details that he had gotten used to seeing in his day to day life. He couldn't help a small pang in his chest and he recognised it as something along the lines of homesickness. God, he was going to miss this place...

Smiling at his memories in the Nova Empire, Tony couldn't help but be happy that he had gotten to go somewhere where he wasn't known or recognised as a billionaire or a hero but as a smart man that was great with mechanics. It was refreshing in a sense and on many levels, Tony knew that he would miss the place. He would miss the normality of the lifestyle and he would miss his new friends but at the same time, Tony missed Earth and his responsibility towards his own planet. There were so many problems that needed to be solved and he couldn't bare the thought of leaving Pepper, Happy and Rhodey high and dry. He felt like he could barely remember their faces!

They were at the front door of Rhomann's apartment when the door swung open and Duranna was flinging her tiny body around Tony's legs, tears streaming down her baby-round cheeks.

Tony didn't even look at Dey for support as he scooped up the child and tried to rub the salty tears away with his sleeve while he attempted to comfort her and rubbed her back.

"Hey, short stuff, what's the matter?" he asked gently.

Duranna looked to Tony with her killer puppy eyes and he found it hard to not coo over the child as tears started to gather in her eyes once again. After they stumbled into the home, the little girl started to cry ten-fold as she sobbed into his shirt.

It took the joint effort of Tony, Rhomann and Mrs.Dey to calm the child down enough for her to get out a broken, "I-I d-d-don' w-wan' To-ony to l-leave!" if there was ever a time for crushing guilt to kill Tony, now would be the time...

Looking at Rhomann with pure desperation on his features, the Xandarian stumbled over himself to try and reassure his distraught, and slightly hysterical, daughter. He patted her hair, not even wanting to try and pry her tiny fingers away from Tony's shirt, "Darling, Tony wants to go back home to his own family. You wouldn't want him to miss his family while he's here do you?"

Silently, the child shook her head, face solum as she pressed the side of her face to Tony's chest. Slowly, she looked up, eyes giant with childish innocence as she begged, "Can't we be your family Tony? You can be my uncle if you want to?"

Her voice was hopeful and pleading, tears once again gathering in her eyes. Quickly, before Tony started to cry himself, he dashed off to the kitchen and sat her down on the counter so that he could crouch down more to her eye level. The only difficulty he had was that Duranna refused to let go of his shirt.

Tony sighed before he started to explain to the child, voice soft and hands gentle as he held onto the tiny hands that clutched to him for dear life, "Yes, I'm going back home and I'm not doing this because they win over you because they don't. You are as every bit of my family as my family is back at my home and you will always have a place in my heart. But they don't know where I am, they don't know if I'm alive." he looked Duranna in the eyes and gave her a soft smile before it morphed into a huge grin and he picked her up and held her above his head, making her squeal in delight, "Y'know what?" she shook her head, a bright grin on her face, "You're gonna see me all the time 'cause I'm gonna call you even when I'm there!"

He threw the girl in the air a little, catching her before putting her on the floor, laughing the whole way down. She turned and hugged his legs and whispered, "I love you Uncle Tony." before she ran off to her mother and started telling her that Tony needed a going away party.

Rhomann walked up to the genius, an uncertain look on his face, "Are you sure you should be promising that? I'm pretty sure that it's impossible to do..."

Tony could only grin at the other man as he said rather smugly, "Oh ye of little faith! Are you seriously doubting me? It's all a matter of frequencies and wave lengths, my friend." he slapped Dey on the back before putting his arm around his shoulders, "I used to create and engineer the near impossible everyday back on Earth, I'm pretty sure I could handle making a phone call." Tony snickered as Rhomann rolled his eyes, obviously trying to fight a grin, "Now, where's the lovely food from this fancy restaurant your taking us all?"

Tony's grin was one of the Devil's when he said that, relishing in Duranna's childish screams of dresses and going out food and Mrs.Dey listing off every kind of expensive restaurant that they could go to, with Rhomann right in the middle, glaring daggers at the Terran he'd invited into his home...

 

\----------

 

While Tony and the Dey family where getting ready for a final night out, the team were crowded in yet another bar. It was just another night of flavourless and repetitive food once again but hopefully for the last night. Though, it was only Peter, Gamora and Rocket complaining about the food they ate as Drax inhaled his food because, as he puts it, 'It's a warrior's way!' and Groot mostly stuck to water...

The night was how any other would go: Peter went away to snatch up a girl or guy for the night, Gamora just sent death glares at anyone that looked at her for too long, Drax spoke loudly about his past battles and how fun it was to be punched in the face and Groot commented like he usually did. But Rocket was acting different on that particular night. Instead of getting drunk off his ass and jotting down new weapon designs, he sat there, staring into the distance as his mind wondered to its depths.

He thought about his trust in other people and how hard it was for any new kid to fit in. The only reason they had taken to each other so well in the end was because they were all fucked up in some way or another and had trust issues that went on for miles. The team had bonded over their distrust of people and their 'wrongs' in the eyes of the galaxy, being judged and criticised at every move before they saved all their asses and now their all suddenly 'good'.

In his pre-good-guy days, it had just been Groot and Rocket. They found each other as two lost beings that were different in every way from the norm of their galaxy. They were cast outs, alone and unwanted by practically everyone. No one would listen to their troubles or their reasonings as they all saw it in black and white and only cared for their own sake of health. It had been that way for years, just Rocket and Groot, and together, they were bounty hunters and they didn't care who they took in or what they did; it was just for the money and nothing more.

For years, they did that and the two of them had come to terms that they didn't need anyone else other than themselves. That little routine was blown to kingdom come when they found a bounty for a certain Peter Quill. Then a shit load of other stuff happened and they held hands at the end, yay.

After that, Rocket and Groot suddenly found that their world was expanding and it expanded to three more people. People who was just like him and Groot, lonely and lost, and they ended up fitting well together. At least they still got to fight and blew stuff up or he would have quit the stupid hero job ages ago...

But with a new guy joining the ranks... Rocket wasn't certain what would happen. Would the kid be pushed to the side and be killed within the first few missions? Would he just be like a maid around the ship instead of a friend they make? Or will he be accepted with open arms and one of them pushed out of the group? There were too many possibilities and the kid didn't really look like he could handle his own. Yeah, the kid had muscles but that didn't mean anything when it came to fighting on a battle field.

One thing for sure was that the newest bag of flesh was definitely smart, Rocket didn't know how smart but he was intelligent enough to stand out from the rest. It wasn't even the fact that the guy knew his stuff, it was his eyes. They were bright, taking in every little detail and Rocket could almost see the cogs in his head turning at an impossible speed as he did so, analysing every little thing he couldn’t and could see.

Another thing was that the kid was a Terran! How the fuck did that happen?!

Terran's didn't really get out, secluded on their own planet with their primitive technology and their small and clueless beliefs. Even Peter admitted that not one person on Earth could have imagined this kind of reality, except maybe for TV (whatever that was...). So how was it that the little Terran came to be so far away from his rock? Peter was a different situation, he was taken as a kid by someone, he didn't just spring up from butt-fuck-nowhere! Something must have happened to him for him to be there at all...

That brought up another thing. What was the story behind it? Other than his name and age (although he didn't even know if _that_ was true), they knew shit about the kid. They didn't know his training, or even his cooking skills that he was hired for, and they sure as hell didn't know about his past life on Terra, what he did and who he was! And it didn't sit well with Rocket that they didn’t know anything!

They were hiring a stranger and Rocket wasn't sure if Quill was thinking with his head or with his dick. Anyone who wasn't blind could see that Quill was head over heels for this new pretty boy. And if they do end up liking the kid for who he is, Quill will win his conquest and then kick him out so that they're back to square one! Quill could ruin everything with just one night of his stupidity!

Rocket couldn't help but rub his temples at all the drama and blood that would cause. That would be a nightmare and Quill would surely die when it was all over...

"Are you okay, Rocket?" came Drax's concerned voice, effectively cutting through Rocket's cloud of deep thought.

He blinked a few times, just staring at the others that were looking at him in turn, all of them had expressions of varying degrees, except Groot, who had a knowing look in his eyes. It was a moment more before he completely came out of it and he shook his head to get back to reality.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Rocket reassured with a nod and took a sip of the drink in front of him, "Just thinkin' 'bout our new chef."

Gamora only nodded before turning back to her drink but Drax practically shouted, "Ah, yes! I am also concerned about our newest friend! He is a child now but we will help him progress to man-hood, although it will take time..." He added with his face set with determination. Beside him, Gamora rolled her eyes.

That was another problem wasn't it? The kid was a kid. He may not have been classed as a kid on his planet but he damn well looked young from where Rocket had been standing. He almost couldn't bear saying yes, knowing that there was a chance for him to be killed in his few years of actual life.

It was then that Rocket frowned at his own thoughts. Why did he care so much if the kid would fit in ,or if he got hurt, or kicked off the team? He never cared about anyone before (except Groot and maybe the three other idiots around him). People died all the time and in some cases they were better off dead than alive. Did... Did he care about the bag of flesh?

Shooting a quick look to Groot, Rocket got all the answers he needed. Groot nodded in confirmation, eyes knowing and face as earnest as it could be. It was a confirmation that they both felt an instant connection with the kid.

It was from that point that Rocket silently swore, along with Groot, that they were going to protect this kid, no matter what.

 

\-----------

 

In a vacant spot in the middle of nowhere, there was a large rock, broken off and floating in the isolated blackness that was space. Hardly any light seemed to be able to penetrate the shrouding darkness, distant stars looked small and insignificant and the aura around the place was deathly and threatening, dooming those who ever looked upon the place.

If ever it was seen, no one would think that anyone was there. They would only think of it as a clump of rock that could have been a meteor. They would never have guessed that a powerful, twisted, evil being resided there with a hovering, golden throne chair. A throne with no meaning but would one day mean everything. At least that's what the Mad Titan said as he rested there, waiting for the world to crumble at his feet.

However, his plans seemed to have had a fault in it, not that he could ever believe that. The first planet to fall was always meant to be Terra or Midgard or Earth (as the creatures that resided there called it) but it didn't fall. His little god was his front and would be the one to take over the small realm. To his knowledge, the invasion failed due to a team of individuals with one of them firing a deadly weapon of some sort into the Chitauri mother ship and destroyed everything!

His simple plan foiled by just a few! But the main one, the one in the metal armour was the main cause of failure...

Rage filled him for the insignificant mortal but he couldn’t help a spike of curiosity building up about the mortal that destroyed his army - nearly single handedly. His curiosity lead to want, especially after he found more information about the mortal. The mortal was a perfect candidate to stand with him but he had two problems: one was that the mortal was bound to reject his offer, the other was that the mortal was seemingly absent from the inferior Realm. However, both could be solved rather easily…

He _will_ have Tony Stark...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohhhh! Yes, I went there!  
> Update will be here soon-ish, don’t worry!


	6. Difference of right and want

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so sorry that this took so damn long to get finished and sorry if it’s too short but I’ve done my best and I hope to like it!

When they all finally got in, it was well into the night; the streets shrouded in darkness and the sky an inky black.

Closing the door to his temporary room behind him, Tony’s pinned-up smile melted away instantly to the worried frown that aged his youthful face. Slowly and quietly, Tony found himself descending down the door to sit limply on the soft carpets below him, bringing his knees up like a fearful child afraid of the dark and; in Tony’s case, it was a good enough reason to be afraid. He still had nightmares about his heroic almost-sacrifice when he’d ended up in space in order to defeat the Chitauri; the cold closing in among the darkness and bitter loneliness that filled him.

Later after the battle, Tony would find out from Thor that what he witnessed was the Void, an area of the universe that had been so utterly destroyed that no light or warmth could possibly reach it. It was a terrifying image and it never failed to make Tony shiver at the thought of it.

He could only be so thankful that the idea of space in general didn’t freak him out and make him have a panic attack or he didn’t think his sanity would have survived where he was now.

Right at that moment, Tony could only close his eyes and give a deep sigh of controlled breath before he sucked back in again, forcing his muscles to relax as he calmly thought about the progression of the day…

In all honesty, he’d been feeling off all day. The idea of going back home had Tony fighting an internal war of right and want. It was _right_ to go home because he had mess to clean up, he had a duty to his planet, to his company, and his friends. It was _right_ to go home because he couldn’t let people go through with mourning him when he was, in fact, alive and that was just unfair on Pepper, Rhodey and Happy. It was unfair on Pepper because that meant that she was having to fight an uphill battle with the press about having no good quality technology on the market due to his absence. It was unfair to Happy as he was loosing money for his job, having no Tony to pick up when he was drunk (not that it happened often anymore) and securing the perimeter when he had press conferences. It was unfair to Rhodey as his friend was counting on him to create him new legs to make up for his paralysis.

It was selfish to stay when all of Earth was up in chaos because of him. He wasn’t one to run away from his problems and he wasn’t now.

But then there was what he wanted… He _wanted_ to get away from the drama, the murder, the stress. He _wanted_ to be _normal_ for once and work a _normal_ job, have a _normal_ family— that he didn’t have to keep secret or protect due to the fact that they’d be in constant danger because of him— and a _normal_ life. He wanted to start over. He wanted to ignore the betrayal, his duties, his past horrors. He just _wanted_ to _forget_!

And then, repeat…

It was a never ending cycle and those thoughts didn’t do well with his anxiety, making his nerves more and more frayed as the day grew on. Now, he was exhausted after putting up a glamour of happy faces and smirks, no one noticing that he was a little too tense, or that his smiles were a little too wide to be real. Lets face it, no one would notice with all the years of practice he’d had in front of the press.

Looking up, Tony met his own eyes in the dark of the long mirror faced opposite of him, mounted innocently on the wall. Slowly, reluctantly, Tony’s eyes dragged over a face that he recognised from years ago and yet didn’t recognise at all. His face was smooth, the scar at the edge of his jaw a little more visible than the faded line that he had to squint to see on his older appearance. Distantly, he remembered when he got that, an injury from when he was a little younger than his current age: he’d told the press that it was a science accident, he’d mixed the wrong chemicals together when he was multitasking and the beaker exploded, a bit of glass nicking him on the face; the real story would forever be behind closed doors as he’d gained it through an argument with his drunk father and it escalated to the point where Howard had thrown a glass, his clumsy throw making the glass hit the wall beside him instead of his head, the glass shattering and a bit cutting his jaw. He’d gone to bed with a bandage on his face and a silent mantra in his head as to 'not cry', to 'not give him the satisfaction of making you cry' or that 'he’d gotten to you'.

Ripping his eyes away from the small scar (one that seemed insignificant to the scale of his other past injuries) and away from the memories, Tony’s eyes roamed over his hair, a solid dark brown in contrast to his duller brown when he was older and the greys peeking through the thickness. There were no traces of the lines on his forehead, even when he raised his eyebrows, and no lines about his eyes. There were no greys in his goatee, something that he’d had to regrow after he’d escaped from his torture to Xander as, without it, it just made him look too young. His bones didn’t hurt, his breathes were slightly easier than it was when he was older and his hands didn’t ache with arthritis from when he’d crushed them under a car when he was really young and started to mess around with the car, Howard having not noticed that he’d been tracing with the patters on the bottom of the wheels when he removed the jack.

Now, his temperature run hotter than before, the heat ever present in his bones and on his skin, an ever lasting reminder of what he’d been put through. Just like the age he’d been reduced to.

With what had been forced upon him, Tony wasn’t just an all natural human that was a billionaire, a genius and a philanthropist any more. Now, he was all of that and more. He was all of that and a cocktail of things that came out of a bottle. Things that had forced him to change and alter against his will. Somehow, it felt like it was something akin to rape. A forceable thing that had been pressed upon him against his will, a violation of his body. They’d held him down when they did it, words taunting and faces cracked into cruel smiles, telling Tony that they were going to making him kill everyone he loved with a semi-consiousness before they put him in the chair again and wiped out the last traces of him. He was going to be their next little puppet; bigger and better than the original.

Choking on a sob, Tony felt the familiar sense of chilling dread rise in his chest, making him feel like he was going to physically throw up. He looked at himself as he felt silent tears fall (feeling so much more hotter than they should, almost scalding his cheeks), his entire frame shaking with the effort of not making a single sound. He barely noted that the room’s cool temperature was increasing, his core rising steadily in heat.

He laughed brokenly when he had a sudden thought of what Wanda would say to him for crying like he was. It was probably along the lines of: “Monsters don’t deserve to cry, Stark. Are you really so pathetic as to cry for your self? I guess it would make sense as no one else would ever cry for you.” He probably hit that right on the nail as well. He only hoped that when he got back and saw Steve again that the ’40s boy wouldn't start calling him a ‘kid’ because he looked younger than Wanda now. God, please don’t let that happen.

Honestly, Tony couldn’t understand why the prospect of going home felt worse than when he had a metal cylinder drilled into his chest and woke up attached to a battered car battery. He just couldn’t understand why the reactions of his old team in the RAFT had damn near broken him after everything that he’d been through in his life. He didn’t understand why Steve’s betrayal had nearly brought his whole world down while Obadiah’s betrayal had been manageable. He didn’t understand why being turned into a kid again had effected him more than when he’d been kidnapped in Afghanistan. He didn’t know why the thought of seeing the ex-Avengers again effected him more than what happened to him when he was taken in Siberia.

There were no answers and he only felt fear and pain and gut-wrenching betrayal whenever his mind directed him to the image of a smiling Steve in his civil-wear.

_God damn it_!

He was supposed to be _Iron Man_ for _Christ sake_! What was wrong with him that he could barely look at himself in the mirror without a flash of pain or memories or Steve’s voice in his ear telling him all these horrible things! He didn’t understand why he was always linking Steve with what happened to him _after_ Siberia!

Distantly, Tony knew that he was getting too stressed, that his breathing had picked up to heaving gasps, and that his clothes were beginning to writher and burn off of his body. All he could do was grip his perfectly brown hair, with no peeking greys, in a white knuckled grip as he looked at the tops of his knees with unseeing eyes, too hot tears running down his face in burning rivers.

He delved deeper and deeper into his memories, his pain, his past until he felt like he was trapped living a memory that he could find no escape from…

 

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~  
“That’s my father’s shield!” Tony shouted, hurt and betrayal so fresh that it might as well be a physical butcher’s knife through his heart, as he called out to Steve’s retreating back, “It doesn’t belong to you! You don’t deserve it!” And, really, he didn’t. That shield was a defender from violence, a protection from outsiders that wished to hurt them. But, over the years, Steve had managed to turn a device of protection into a deadly weapon, a weapon that he’d nearly severed his head with if Steve hadn't changed his mind last minute.

The echoing clang of finality as Steve dropped the shield only made Tony go numb inside. It was like, by throwing away his shield, he was throwing Tony away, throwing away everything they’d built together over the years: their teamwork, their friendship, their trust for one another. He was just going to throw that all away like last night’s trash…

Defeated and adrenaline leaking out of his system, quickly being replaced by pain and biting coldness, Tony dropped ungracefully onto the floor, suit propped up against a stone pillar as he panted and struggled to keep his eyes open. It was like an uphill battle that he was inevitably going to loose but he knew that he couldn’t go to sleep until he called for FRIDAY but he couldn’t get ahold of her. His suit was too messed up. The reactor in his chest barely glowing and although the shrapnel had been taken out (the doctors having said that removing the Arc Reactor would be more dangerous than removing the shrapnel and so they left it in), it was still quite concerning as it meant that he had no power for the suit. There was no heat to protect him from the growing chill of Siberia, he had no communications and he was under no condition to be moving about any time soon.

Twenty minutes later, Tony was shivering from the cold, seeing from the corner of his eye that frost was beginning to grow on the edges of his metal suit. Coughing was painful as it jostled his injuries and made him grimace at the increasingly wet sound of it. It was only when he started to taste blood on his tongue did Tony conclude that at least one of his ribs was broken from the beating he took from the two super soldiers.

Two of them. God, he didn’t realise how seriously stupid it was at the time but now that he looks back at it, he really wishes that they didn’t double team him. Well at least he could say that he went up against two super solders at once and didn’t die. Yet.

His mind drifted as time went on, a few minutes turning into a few hours and he noted calmly that he’d stopped shivering some time ago, a sign of hyperthermia. He thought about how he could have done things differently, if it really was all his fault, if Rhodey would blame him for his paralysis. He wondered if Steve and his reunited boyfriend would break the others out of the RAFT. He wondered if the world at large would blame him for the whole Civil War— he would’ve thought so…

When he came back to himself it was only because there was a leather-clad hand patting his face, a distant voice telling him to “wake up”. Blinking and focusing through the cold and the pain, Tony found himself face to face with a man that he’d never seen before. The man was young, maybe early thirties and he had dirty blond hair that was short at the sides and long at the top, long enough for the strands that weren’t scraped back to brush against his eyebrow. His eyes were ice-blue, making his gaze cold and sharp as he pierced into the Tony’s warm golden-brown ones. What set Tony even more on edge was that the smile the stranger gave was almost shark-like and showed way too many teeth for Tony’s liking.

“Hello, Mr.Stark,” the stranger greeted politely, his leather-clad hand coming to rest against Tony’s cheek, which Tony wanted nothing more than to bat away, “It is nice to finally meet the strong and brave Iron Man face to face. I am a huge fan of yours!” the man smiled brilliantly, putting his other hand on his chest as he said the last bit.

The man’s chuckle sounded cruel to Tony’s ears, like a bully on a play ground that had won the toy they wanted by beating up the other boy that had it first. It was mocking and only served to make Tony glare at the stranger that was leaning over him because it was damn clear that he wasn’t there to save Tony in any shape or form.

“Aw,” the stranger drawled, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, “What’s that look for, Mr.Stark? I was only making conversation!”

Glaring harder at the younger man, Tony found that his voice was raw and rough, barely able to sound out any words past his chapped lips, “Your… n-not… her-here… t-t-to… help…” he managed shakily, gritting his teeth at the pain of just talking.

At this, the man’s eyes seemed to brighten, his smile becoming more shark-like than before, “On the contrary, Mr.Stark! We are here to help you become stronger, better, more invincible! You will our greatest weapon, greater than that of the Winter Soldier. And in return, you will help us build HYDRA up to its rightful glory that it had been unjustly denied all those years ago!”

Eyes widening at the word ‘HYDRA’, Tony felt a cold dread hit like lead at the bottom of his stomach. This was not good. This was worse than anything Tony had imagined.

“And to think that the man that had sought out to defeat us all those years ago has now delivered us our greatest Asset of opportunity on a silver platter, all ready for us to collect.” the man grinned like he’d truly won a prize worth boasting about.

“N-No,” Tony forced out, glaring daggers at the man above him while he was still immobile, completely vulnerable to anything, “I’m… n-not… hel-lping… y-you.”

Chuckling evilly once again, the HYDRA agent shook his head, like he was amused by a child’s defiance to not eat their vegetables. His fingers gently trailed down his face, smearing the blood, that hadn’t dried, along his cheek and jaw. Then a finger and thumb gripped his chin tightly, all gentle touches out of the window as he yanked Tony’s face up to meet the stranger head on. The injured hero grimaced at the pain the jerky movement spiked from his wounded head, he probably had a serious concussion.

The man smiled widely, face too close to Tony’s own and his eyes, that were once calm and collected were now the manic gaze of a madman, “Mr.Stark, you wont have a choice.” he then turned away from the downed hero and yelled at someone behind him in another language, tone harsh and commanding before he turned back to Tony, “I’ll see you soon, Mr.Stark.” he said with faux pleasantness, before he stabbed a needle into Tony’s neck, quickly injecting the unknown fluid into the genius.

In a matter of seconds, Tony’s vision was darkening, the liquid working fast to knock him out.

Before, he completely became unconscious, Tony heard a bone chilling salute that made his stomach clench sickeningly, “Hail HYDRA.” multiple voices called…  
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

 

… When Tony came to, he was not alone but that hardly mattered as Tony was too busy thinking back to what the man had said, a man that had revealed his name to be Earlin Wolfgang later on, about Steve: "delivered us our greatest Asset of opportunity on a silver platter”. Was it really Steve’s fault that he’d suffered through all of that? Suffered through torture and unwilling transformations all because he left Tony there to die?

Was that really Steve’s intention? To let Tony die, cold and alone?

“-ony. Tony!” a voice called, helping Tony come back to himself, “Tony! I need you to calm down, now! You need to take nice deep breathes, okay? In.” the voice waited a few seconds, “And out.” the voice audibly breathed out before breathing deeply back in again, “In.” and the voice repeated the process again and again until Tony’s vision wasn’t as blurry as it once was and he remembered that he was with the Dey family. In a home. Safe and away from the people that had harmed him and wronged him so badly.

“There you go, Tony,” Rhomann guided gently, repeating the process again and again before Tony was breathing normally and he was looking at Dey and actually seeing him, sitting in the dark in his night clothes, his hands hovering above Tony’s own.

“Sorry.” Tony croaked out, causing him to have a heaving coughing fit that practically killed his throat. He couldn’t have felt grateful enough when Rhomann handed him a big glass of water, letting Tony drain the whole thing within seconds.

Looking about him, Tony realised that he was a few feet from the closed door now, the white paint now charred an ugly black along with the walls around him. He felt the simmering heat under his skin and he couldn’t bring himself to feel embarrassed as he sat in front of Rhomann with no clothes to cover up, too exhausted to care.

“I promise I’ll pay for the damage. Again.” Tony gestured to the ruined paint job and melted door handle. Sighing when he felt the simmering heat die down to nothing more than a flickering spark.

The smile on the man’s face was completely parental as he looked at Tony, hands tentatively taking his own, getting bolder when they didn’t burn him, and shook his head, “It’s fine. It wasn’t your fault.”

Shaking his head, Tony could feel tears gather in his eyes once again as the memories and thoughts surfaced through his mind, “I’m fine,” his voice cracked.

There were no further words between them as Rhomann gently grabbed the younger man’s shoulders and pulled him to his chest, closing his arms around him in a loose embrace as he rocked them rhythmically from side to side. Tony froze up for a few seconds, muscles locking up, before he relaxed into the secure hold, breathing out shakily as he attempted to discreetly stop his tears from falling. It didn’t work.

“You don’t have to do this. You know that, right?" Rhomann stated softly but firmly, rubbing his hand soothingly up and down Tony’s spine, an action that reminded Tony of Jarvis when the butler comforted him when he cried away from Howard, “You don’t have to prove anything to anyone. No one is expecting you to go back and take the world on your shoulders again. Because, what happened, wasn’t your fault. Okay? It wasn’t your fault at all.”

At those words, the dam, that Tony was quickly trying to rebuild again, broke, sending a rush of tears down his cheeks and creating a wet spot on Dey’s shoulder.

Tony and Dey stayed like that for what felt like hours as Tony silently sobbed into his friend’s shoulder. And when Tony finally cried himself to sleep, Rhomann lifted the smaller man onto the bed, thankful that it didn’t catch alight this time, and drew the covers over him. For a few seconds, Dey watched his young charge sleep, breaths easy and mouth slightly open, he looked so young. Regardless of his true age or his appearance, Rhomann didn’t think that any man or woman deserved to ever go through as much crap as Tony has in one life time.

This only inspired him to make sure that the Guardians knew exactly what would happen to them if Tony were to suffer any more than he already had. He also hoped that when they got to Terra and the team inevitably learn Tony’s history, that at least one of the Guardians would punch the Captain in the face. Rhomann would personally go for the nuts but a punch to the face would have to do.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I just couldn’t resist one more Tony and Rhomann moment! I really do love them together!
> 
> Updates will come as soon as possible! Again, I am so sorry for the wait!


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